Computer Vision Lab

The Computer Vision Laboratory was established in 2003 to undertake research work in the areas of computer vision and pattern recognition. The lab received over Rs 10 million in external funding since 2003. Current research projects include development of fast image registration approaches, non-rigid structure from motion, object recognition and analysis of satellite imagery for rural applications.

For more information regarding the activities at the Computer Vision Lab, please contact Dr. Sohaib Khan

Embedded Systems Lab

Embedded Systems Lab (ESL) has been set up to stimulate research and teaching activity in the area of hardware and software design for real-time applications. Stringent computational demands posed by real-time signal processing can only be met through improvements in the design process all the way from algorithm-level conceptual design down to gate-level physical implementation. New design methodologies that support a combination of Hardware/Software co-design and System Level mixed-signal platform support are needed.
The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art hardware platforms and software tools to support research activity in a number of key areas of contemporary interest. Recent inventory includes Electronic System Level (ESL) tools provided by Mentor Graphics Inc. to support newly established Chair in Embedded Systems. ESL has in the past received generous donations in the form of equipment and software tools from Analog Devices, USA, Xilinx Inc., USA, Altera Inc., USA and PTCL Grant for VIEW project. Additional circuit boards for different research projects have been procured from Digilent, Memec, Burched and Dalanco.
In the past ESL has successfully completed research projects on On-chip Cache Analysis of RISC Processor, Real-time G.729 Speech codec on Analog Devices Media Processor, FPGA Implementation of Pipelined CORDIC Algorithm, Communication Receiver Implementation using Texas Instruments DSP, Hardware Design of a Galois Field Divider and High Performance Logic Analyzer using Memory Interleaving.
Currently research is being done on Multi-standard Software Defined Radios, Assessing some of the limitations of OFDM, Image and Video Instruction Set Extensions in RISC processors, Programmable DSP based Real-time Speech and Audio coding and MIPS Architecture Simulations. Our latest developments include a design method for Intermediate Frequency Architecture that concurrently supports GSM, CDMA and UMTS. Architectural modifications in OpenRISC CPU to support multimedia processing have also been carried out.
For more information regarding the activities at the Embedded Systems Lab, please contact Dr. Shahid Masud (smasud AT lums DOT edu DOT pk) or Dr. Jahangir Ikram (jikram AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

High Performance Computing Lab

The High Performance Computing lab is a multidisciplinary resource that supports data and compute intensive analysis and problem solving. The lab currently has a 16 CPU Linux cluster made up of dual-Xeon compute nodes interconnected by a gigabit switched network and 2 Terabyte of storage. Scalable Rocks Cluster Distribution is installed on the cluster providing compilers, libraries, and other software for high performance computing. Presently, the lab is supporting coursework and research in the areas of parallel algorithms for data mining, efficient message passing protocols, and hardware/software performance benchmarking.

For more information regarding the activities at the Data Mining and High-performance Computing Lab, please contact Dr. Asim Karim (akarim AT lums DOT edu DOT pk), Dr Shahid Masud (smasud AT lums DOT edu DOT pk), or Humaira Kamal (humairak AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

Knowledge and Data Engineering Lab

The Knowledge and Data Engineering Lab supports research and development in the area of data mining, machine learning, and intelligent information processing. The lab is fully equipped with hardware and software resources for the development and evaluation of algorithms and computational models for the analysis of large structured and semi-structured datasets. Currently the lab is supporting development of an intelligent network intrusion detection system, clustering analysis of network data and software code, and online and streaming algorithms for itemset mining. The lab has been supported by a grant from PTCL R&D Fund and research funding from LUMS. The work of the lab has been published in several international conferences.

For more information regarding the activities at the Knowledge and Data Engineering Lab, please contact Dr. Asim Karim (akarim AT lums DOT edu Dot pk) or Dr. M. M. Awais (awais AT lums DOT edu DOT pk)

Multimedia Research Lab

The goal of Multimedia Research Lab (MRL) is to conduct research on all aspects of multimedia systems including multimedia data processing, computing and the related communication issues. In today’s age of Information Technology, Multimedia data refers to Audio, Images, Video, Graphics and Text data. Currently the MRL lab has been focusing on research on video, image and audio processing algorithms, coding and their real-time implementation on embedded platforms.

The lab with state-of-the-art facilities is now about two and a half years old and was established through external funding. During this time with the growing number of students and researchers associated with the lab 17 research publications have been realized. In the last two years MRL has also successfully managed to deliver an industrial project related to the development of a proprietary Video Conferencing system. It is the objective of the lab to steer its effort towards new emerging research areas including multi-view image and video processing, Mobile TV and 3D-TV.

MRL team believes in encouraging collective research among its faculty members, graduates students and external research groups. At the same time we want to strengthen our interaction with industry through collaborative R&D projects. Currently research is being done on Motion Compensated Wavelet based video coding, efficient implementation issues of Fine Grain Video Scalability, efficient prediction algorithms for real-time implementation of H.264 and MPEG4 standards, Constrained but fast object extraction and tracking for real-time multimedia applications, proprietary error resilient audio/video codec for multipoint video conferencing on embedded platform over diverse networks and CELP and HVXC based speech/audio codecs. In the future MRL plans to work on Multi-view video processing, 3D-TV and Free View TV standardization and Mobile TV standard for 4G wireless Networks.

For more information regarding the activities at the Multimedia Research Lab, please contact Dr. Nadeem Khan (nkhan AT lums DOT edu DOT pk) or Dr. Shahid Masud(smasud AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

Neighborhood for Emerging World Technologies (NEWT)

The LUMS Neighborhood for Emerging World Technologies (NEWT) was established in Jan 2006 by Dr. Umar Saif to pursue a cross-disciplinary research thrust in developing-world technologies. Research projects at NEWT are specifically aimed at bridging the “digital divide” between the developed and the developing world. The reason for this “digital divide” is that traditional research in ICT technologies is based on assumptions suited to the affluent world, such as affordability of high-end computing devices, broadband communication infrastructure, uninterrupted power supply, computer savvy users, to enlist a few. Therefore, technologies derived from such assumptions often fail to address key challenges of cost, deployment, power consumption, and support for semi-literate to illiterate users in the developing world. Research at NEWT covers diverse areas such as distributed systems, network protocols and architecture, wireless access, sensor networks, ad-hoc and low-configuration communication infrastructure and alternate user interaction paradigms.

NEWT was established with seed funding from Microsoft Research’s (MSR) Digital Inclusion program in Jan 2006. NEWT’s project was one of the 17 projects funded by MSR from the 162 proposals submitted from 34 countries. This was also the first project funded by Microsoft Research (MSR) in Pakistan. NEWT has also initiated several research proposals with local and international grant programs, including USAID, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Heigher Excuation Commission (HEC) and Cisco URP.

For more information regarding the activities at the Neighborhood for Emerging World Technologies Lab, please contact Dr. Umar Saif (umar AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

Networks and Communications Lab

The purpose of the lab is to provide resources to undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research in the Telecommunications area. It also provides help to students who wish to complete their senior projects and MS projects in the Networking and Communication area. The lab has the following tools: OPNET Modeler, OPNET MPLS Model, OPNET Wireless module, ILOG CPLEX (solver), and ACC and ACC (a homegrown simulator for MPLS TE). The lab serves the following courses: Computer Networks, Network Protocols and Standards, Topics in Internet Research, Advanced Networks, Multimedia Communications, Optical Networks, Analog and Digital Communication, and Network Security.

For more information regarding the activities at the Networks and Communications Lab, please contact Dr. Zartash Uzmi (zartash AT lums DOT edu DOT pk), or Dr. Tariq Jadoon (jadoon AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

Networks and Systems Lab

The networks and systems lab was setup in 2005 with the joint support of the Department of Computer Science (LUMS) and the PTCL R&D Fund. The aim was to undertake research in the areas of operating systems, computer networks (protocols, standards and performance evaluation) as well as the design of dependable and secure systems. To date, the lab has been contributing in the development of highly available servers and fault resistant routers. In addition, the lab has also undertaken projects related to the area of multimedia communications over the Internet. Specific research thrusts include performance benchmarking of the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) Backbone for voice over IP traffic and foeveation based surveillance video storage, indexing and retrieval. Two research projects were funded by the PTCL Thematic Research Grants Scheme. The lab also provides technical expertise to the ongoing wireless initiative at LUMS focusing on Sensor Networks and Cross-Layer Optimization. Presently the lab consists of a team of five research assistants.

For further information regarding the activities at the Networks and Systems Lab, please contact Dr. Tariq Jadoon (jadoon AT lums DOT edu DOT pk) or Dr. Shahab Baqai (baqai AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

Robotics and Intelligent Computing Lab (RICE)

The Robotics and Intelligent Computing (RICE) Lab at LUMS is dedicated to conduct research with primary focus on Applied Soft Computing. The lab is equipped with the state-of-the art software and hardware, with a total strength of over ten members. The members of the Robotics and Intelligent Computing Lab have contributed to fields of Intelligent Speech and Natural Language Processing, Intelligent System Modeling, Simulation and Controls, Data mining and Self Rule Generation, AI, Databases and Aspect Oriented Programming, Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems, and Robot Design, Planning, and Learning.

Members of the lab have worked on several projects such as automatic Tajweed rule extraction from Quranic Recitations, modeling and simulation of industrial processes, modeling the Indus basin river system, automation of conceptual models in databases and object oriented paradigms, aspect semantic networks, stock market predictions using FIR neural networks, generalized regression neural networks, economic models and knowledge base systems. The lab has developed two working robots indigenously and is in the initial planning stage of developing an automatic assembly line robotic system. Recently, we received an amount of Rs. 4.3 million funded by PTCL on the project Automated Control Programming of Robot though Imitation for the duration of three years.

The members of the lab have established several external research links with reputed researchers of international universities, which include University of Lancaster, UK University of Cardiff, UK, King’s College, UK, Imperial College, UK, and Ohio State University, USA.

For more information regarding the activities at the Robotics and Intellignet Computing Lab, please contact Dr. Mian Muhammad Awais (awais AT lums DOT edu edu pk) or Dr. Shafay Shamail (sshamail AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).

Software Engineering Lab (SEL)

SEL explores new horizons in the Software Engineering and its related areas. The motivation behind formation of SEL is to develop proficiency in Software Engineering research. The current research focus of its members is in the areas of e-government architectures, quality of conceptual models, maintenance metrics, architecture recovery of legacy systems, soft computing and autonomic computing.

SEL members have published over 10 research papers in international and local journals and conferences during the academic year 2005-06. Currently SEL is involved in research on Enterprise Architecture for E-Government, Usability and IT Adoption, Metrics for Conceptual Models, Role of Control Theory in Autonomic Systems, Automated Failure Recovery in Distributed Systems, Architecture Recovery of Legacy Systems, Injecting Autonomic Behavior in Legacy Systems, Measuring Quality in Self-Managed Systems, Spatial Complexity Metrics and e-Governance Architectures and Frameworks.

For more information regarding the activities at the Software Engineering Lab, please contact Dr. Shafay Shamail (sshamail AT lums DOT edu DOT pk).